big fish

Big Fish is a 2003 movie directed by Tim Burton and written by John August, starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup and Jessica Lange. It is loosely based on the novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace.

The film is much less gothic than some of Burton's other works such as Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow. Big Fish received four Golden Globe nominations and one Oscar nomination for Danny Elfman's original score. The band Pearl Jam also wrote an original song for the movie called "Man of the Hour," which was played during the credits of the film.

The band Yellowcard wrote a song called "How I Go" which was about the movie.

Plot

The film follows the incredible life story of Edward Bloom (McGregor/Finney) and his relationship with his son, Will (Crudup). In the beginning of the film, Will hasn't talked to his father for years, following an incident that assured his belief that his father was a liar who couldn't care less about his family. He approaches him again only after he learns that his father is dying.

The movie is portrayed through flashbacks, as Will tries to recall and piece together the stories his father used to tell him about his many adventures and how he lived his life, which he believes to be tall tales and impossible to believe. Bloom's stories contain fantasy elements: a witch, a giant, a werewolf, and so on, showing him as a lucky hero with few personal flaws.

Will sets out to grasp the idea behind these stories and to discover the truth about the real Edward Bloom. When it all comes together it turns out that Edward's "unbelievable stories" are proven to Will to have some element of truth (e.g., Will meets a giant who, while still very tall, is smaller than his father had made him out to be.) At the end Will realizes his mistake of not trusting his father, and that he needs to open his mind more and be less cynical; finally, he manages to come to terms with his father's need to live an extraordinary life. At the final moments of his father's life, Will concocts an amazingly wild story that sends his father Edward to the lake where he turns into a fish.

The ending of the movie is bittersweet in the sense that before Edward Bloom passed away, his son managed to forgive his father for all his deception. However, the ending proves that without a doubt his father's stories were indeed based on true events.

Cast

• Ewan McGregor - young Edward Bloom
• Albert Finney - senior Edward Bloom
• Jessica Lange - senior Sandra Bloom
• Alison Lohman - young Sandra Bloom
• Billy Crudup - Will Bloom
• Helena Bonham Carter - Jenny (adult), The Witch
• Danny DeVito - Amos Calloway
• Steve Buscemi - Norther Winslow
• Matthew McGrory - Karl the Giant
• David Denman - Don Price (Age 18-22)
• Missi Pyle - Mildred
• Loudon Wainwright III - Beamen
• Ada Tai - Ping
• Arlene Tai - Jing
• Robert Guillaume - Dr. Bennett
• Miley Cyrus-Ruthie

See Also

Big Fish Games

External links

• Official homepage at Sony Pictures
• Big Fish at the Internet Movie Database
• Cinemovie.Info: Big Fish
• Movie trailer
• Newspaper article on Billy Redden